Day 17: Pecan Tassies

Today I reached a monumental 2,000 page views so thanks to everyone who has supported and followed the blog! We made pecan tassies today. If you've ever had pecan pie, they are like miniature versions of that. My mom has made these forever. My aunt provided her with this amazing recipe. My mom keeps telling me this funny story about how she made over 100 of these shortly after I was born. She offered to bake them for my cousins' grandfather's 65th birthday party. She tells me how their grandma said that I must have been such an easy baby for her to be able to make all those cookies after I was born. I always laugh every time I hear that story. I mean it's not surprising that I was such a perfect baby ;) hehe just kidding! I love these so much. They actually might be my favorite of our wide variety of cookies. Maybe it's because the smell resonates me due to that time when the house was probably engulfed in the satisfying smell of pecans, butter, and brown sugar.

One thing that we add to enhance our pecan tassies is chocolate chips. Chocolate is one of my favorite things in the world so basically chocolate makes everything taste better in my eyes. Adding the chocolate, also reminds us of my grandma's chocolate pecan pie which also happens to be one of my favorites. The pecan tassies are like eating a pecan pie but not feeling as guilty afterwards because it's just a bite rather than a slice. To give it the chocolate flavor, we place about 3 chocolate chips over the filling before we put on the pecans so that the pecans cover up the chocolate.

Here's the recipe!

Pecan Tassies-

Shell: Makes 2 dozen
1 cup flour
3 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces

Put into food processor and combine until lumpy, grainy, and sticky mass. Then form into one ball. Separate into 1 1/2 inch balls and press into small muffin tins.

Filling: Makes 4 dozen
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix together and spoon into crust, about 3/4 full. Top with chopped pecans and pat down a little. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and take them out of tins with a sharp knife.

We usually make both chocolate and regular pecan tassies so to distinguish the two, I decorate the chocolate ones with some melted chocolate. I melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave at 20 second intervals. Once the chocolate is melted, I fill it in a piping bag and pipe the zigzag design on to the cookies. Aren't they pretty? :)

By the way, I tasted one and they are the bomb! So if you are looking for a really good Christmas cookie, this is your cookie! I highly recommend them! Enjoy the rest of your night and see you tomorrow.